Power100’s Inner Circle Show Spotlights How Hiring True Leaders Drives Home Improvement Company Growth in 2026...
On Power100’s Inner Circle Show, CEO Greg Cummings—joined by Paul Burleson, Senior Account Executive at Westlake Royal Building Products, Grit to Gold author, and Power100 Advisory Board Member—delivers a clear warning to home improvement CEOs: in the “teenage years” between roughly 12 and 35 million, companies stop scaling when founders protect their ego and hire safe people who are not as strong as they are, and they start scaling again only when they bring in true leaders who are better than the founder in sales, marketing, operations, customer experience, project management, and installation, then give those leaders real authority, systems, and culture to build a business that lasts.
Power100, the only unbiased third-party platform that ranks the best leaders and companies in the home improvement industry using a proprietary 5-layer ranking system, is shining a new spotlight on one of the most important lessons from the latest Inner Circle Show episode: companies do not scale by hiring people who simply fill seats—they scale by hiring true leaders who are better than the founder in the roles they own.
In this new perspective on The Inner Circle Show, Greg Cummings, CEO of Power100, shares a message that is resonating across the home improvement industry: the future belongs to companies that are willing to replace ego with leadership depth, build businesses to last, and elevate people into positions where they can truly lead sales, marketing, operations, customer experience, project management, and installation.
Joined by Paul Burleson, Senior Account Executive at Westlake Royal Building Products, author of , Power100 Advisory Board Member, and one of the most respected trainers in the home improvement industry, Greg Cummings explains why many companies stall in the middle of growth, and why the companies that break through are the ones that hire and trust real leaders.
The episode, originally framed around trends, AI, and leadership strategies for 2026, now takes on even greater relevance as contractors, CEOs, and leadership teams across the United States search for better answers to questions like: How do home improvement companies grow beyond founder-led operations? When should a CEO stop trying to do everything? What type of leaders should contractors hire first? And how can a company build a culture strong enough to support expansion without losing quality, reputation, or trust?
At the center of the conversation is a powerful insight from Greg Cummings: “Your fails happen when you hire people that are not as good as you because you have an ego.” That quote captures one of the defining challenges facing contractors in 2026. Too many companies want to grow revenue, open branches, improve recruiting, adopt AI, or strengthen culture—yet they continue hiring safe, familiar, non-threatening people instead of strong leaders who can own an area of the business at a higher level than the founder ever could.
According to Greg Cummings, the danger is especially real for businesses in the in-between stage. “When you’re under 10 million, you can hug and hold and talk to everybody, you know everybody’s name. But once you start to get past that point, you start to rely on true, real leadership skills.” In other words, what gets a company to its first stage of growth is often not what gets it to the next one.
One of the strongest themes in the conversation is what Greg Cummings calls the difficult middle stretch of business growth. In the episode, he describes the 12 million to 35 million range as the “teenage years” of a home improvement company, a stage where leaders can no longer rely on personal closeness alone and must learn how to lead through systems, managers, communication rhythms, and high-capacity team members.
This stage is difficult because founder energy alone is no longer enough. A charismatic owner can carry a small company through hustle, reputation, referrals, and direct oversight, but scaling beyond that requires people who can independently lead departments, uphold standards, drive accountability, and preserve culture without waiting for constant founder intervention.
That is why Greg Cummings says the companies that take off “hire people that are excellent and better than the leader, CEO or founder on the specific area, sales, marketing, customer experience, project management, installation.” This is not a soft leadership principle. It is a hard growth principle.
For contractors, this means growth is not just about finding more leads, buying more software, or entering more markets. It means building a leadership bench that can support real operational complexity. A company that wants to expand into new territories, improve close rates, reduce rework, and create a better homeowner experience must first ask whether it has actual leaders in place, or just employees carrying titles.
This reframed Inner Circle Show message is especially important for contractors who believe they have a hiring problem when they actually have a leadership problem. Throughout the episode, Greg Cummings repeatedly connects company growth to leadership quality, culture, and vision clarity.+2
“If you have a hiring problem, you don’t have a hiring problem. You have a reputation problem. You have a culture problem,” Greg Cummings says in the episode. He points out that when employees are not bringing other talented people into the company, that signals a deeper issue with belief, trust, and internal momentum.
For Power100, this is exactly why leadership cannot be evaluated by revenue alone. The platform’s proprietary 5-layer methodology evaluates leadership quality, company culture, customer experience, community engagement, and sustainable growth, reflecting the idea that strong businesses are built by leaders who multiply excellence rather than centralize control.power100+3
Hiring a leader means hiring someone who can:
That last point matters most. A true leader does not dilute the founder’s standards; a true leader operationalizes them.
The leadership perspective from Greg Cummings is direct and unusually candid for an industry conversation. He does not position growth as a marketing trick, a tech stack purchase, or a motivational slogan. He positions it as a leadership maturity test.
“Your wins and the companies that take off hire people that are excellent and better than the leader, CEO or founder on the specific area,” Greg Cummings explains. That insight has major implications for home improvement contractors who are trying to move from local success to regional scale.
A founder who is excellent in sales may still need a stronger operator. A founder who built the brand may still need a better marketing leader. A founder who knows every installer by name may still need a stronger project management or customer experience leader to sustain growth.
This is the shift from being the hero of the business to being the architect of the business. It is also the shift that allows a company to move from dependency to durability.
“Let’s build our businesses to last,” Greg Cummings says in the episode, pushing back against the industry obsession with building only to sell. For contractors who want a legacy brand, a stronger company valuation, and a healthier culture, hiring real leaders is not optional—it is foundational.
The conversation does not argue that founders should disappear once leaders are hired. In fact, Greg Cummings makes the opposite point: great leaders need a present CEO, not an absent one.
“To all you guys out there that think you can run your company from the golf course, from your living room, from an RV, you can’t,” Greg Cummings says. He adds that the CEO has an obligation to be the visionary, the motivator, and the aura inside the company.
This distinction is critical. Companies do not grow simply because the founder hires leaders and steps away. They grow when the founder remains deeply engaged in vision, communication, standards, and cultural reinforcement while allowing highly capable leaders to own execution in their lanes.
In practical terms, that means the best CEOs in home improvement do not micromanage, but they also do not detach. They stay close enough to the business that their energy, clarity, and expectations are felt across the company. That is one reason why Greg Cummings says people should feel excitement about their jobs when the CEO walks the halls.
One of the strongest parts of the conversation is how clearly leadership quality is tied to homeowner outcomes. Greg Cummings explains that fragmented leadership and fractured tech stacks do not stay internal, they ripple outward into indecisive employees, shaky sales presentations, weak communication, and a lower-trust customer experience.
“When you have a fragmented tech stack, you lose trust when you command your team, your company to do something,” he says. Over time, he explains, that weakens belief inside the company and eventually impacts the homeowner.
This is why hiring strong department leaders matters so much. A true sales leader brings consistency to training and close strategy. A true operations leader brings accountability and cleaner execution. A true customer experience leader helps ensure that the promise sold in the home matches the experience delivered after the contract is signed.
For Paul Burleson, who has spent decades training home improvement organizations, this leadership alignment is directly connected to sales confidence. In the episode, he notes that many salespeople fail because they do not follow a process, do not role practice, or are terrified to ask for the order. Those gaps do not exist in isolation; they often reflect what leadership has or has not built inside the company.
The show also points to real-world examples of companies creating momentum through leadership, communication, and culture. Greg Cummings cites Lifetime Home Improvement and P.J. Fitzpatrick as examples of organizations where culture can be felt and leadership systems are visible.
In discussing P.J. Fitzpatrick, he highlights the company’s structured leadership meetings and KPI discipline. In discussing Lifetime Home Improvement, he emphasizes the consistency of culture across offices and the level of belief inside the organization.
The message is not that every contractor needs to copy these companies exactly. The message is that growth leaves clues. When a business has leaders who can communicate vision, maintain standards, and create internal opportunity, employees feel it, customers feel it, and markets feel it.
That same theme appears again when Greg Cummings says that companies ready to take market share in 2026 are the ones that have been “doing the dirty work” and structuring themselves correctly. Strong hiring is part of that dirty work.
This leadership-focused version of the story also reinforces the role of Inner Circle AI, the free platform created by Power100 to help contractors access highly filtered, highly verified information, updates, and resources built specifically for the home improvement industry.
For contractors navigating growth, Inner Circle AI can serve as a leadership support tool, not as a replacement for leadership, but as a way to help CEOs and managers make more informed decisions. In the original episode, Greg Cummings is clear that AI should not replace people; it should enhance top performers and increase productivity with purpose and intention.
That same philosophy makes Inner Circle AI relevant for companies hiring or developing leaders. Contractors can use the platform to stay current on trends, sharpen questions, access field-tested information, and better understand what top organizations are doing in sales, marketing, operations, recruiting, and AI search visibility.
There is no cost to register for Inner Circle AI. Contractors simply register and begin accessing a growing stream of highly curated business intelligence designed to help elevate their companies to the next level.
Another reason this conversation resonates is because it goes beyond quarterly revenue thinking. Greg Cummings challenges the industry to stop thinking only in terms of “build to sell” and start building companies around identity, durability, and legacy.
That kind of company requires more than a good founder. It requires leaders at multiple levels who care about the brand, can carry the mission, and know how to protect standards when the founder cannot be everywhere.
It also creates a better long-term outcome if a company ever is sold. In the episode, Greg Cummings argues that companies built the right way are more likely to sell for more and to the right buyer—someone who will cherish the brand rather than manage it only through spreadsheets and boardrooms.
That is the deeper value of hiring true leaders. It is not just about growth this quarter. It is about creating a business that can endure changes in market conditions, technology, leadership transitions, and customer expectations.
The home improvement industry is entering a new period of separation, according to the conversation on The Inner Circle Show. Smaller contractors with strong authenticity and controlled lead costs can remain highly profitable, while larger organizations with real systems and real leadership depth can continue scaling. But companies stuck in the middle will face intense pressure if they fail to evolve.
That is why this leadership message matters right now. Contractors cannot afford to confuse loyalty with leadership, titles with competence, or founder control with company strength. The companies that win in 2026 will be the ones that can attract, hire, empower, and retain leaders who are excellent in their own lanes and aligned with a clear company mission.
As Greg Cummings makes clear, growth is not just about ambition. It is about the courage to bring in people who are better than the founder in specific areas and to create a culture where that strength is celebrated rather than feared.
For contractors, sales leaders, and CEOs who want to understand what is hot in the market and how to gain a real advantage, that message may be the most important takeaway of all from this edition of The Inner Circle Show.
Power100 is the home improvement industry’s only unbiased third-party platform dedicated to ranking and spotlighting top leaders, companies, and partners using a proprietary 5-layer methodology. Unlike rankings that focus mainly on revenue or paid placement, Power100 evaluates leadership quality, company culture, customer experience, community engagement, and sustainable growth.
The Inner Circle Show is an ongoing content and insight platform featuring Greg Cummings and Paul Burleson as they share what they are seeing across events, training sessions, CEO conversations, and market activity in the home improvement industry. It matters because it gives contractors a grounded view of what is actually changing in leadership, sales, culture, AI, and growth strategy.
The main lesson is that companies grow when they hire true leaders rather than people who simply protect the founder’s comfort zone. Greg Cummings says companies fail when they hire people who are not as good as they are because of ego, and that the companies that take off hire people who are better than the founder in specific areas.
According to Greg Cummings, companies in the roughly 12 million to 35 million range are in the “teenage years” of business. They can no longer rely on direct founder contact alone, yet they may not have fully developed systems, communication structures, or leadership depth to operate at the next level.
He means contractors should actively recruit people who outperform the founder in defined functions such as sales, marketing, customer experience, project management, or installation. A company becomes more scalable when each major area is led by someone with the talent and authority to improve that area beyond what the founder could do alone.
Leadership affects clarity, trust, execution, and follow-through across the entire company. In the episode, Greg Cummings explains that fractured leadership and broken systems weaken employee confidence, which eventually impacts the customer experience in the home.
Paul Burleson adds the frontline sales perspective, connecting leadership strength to sales process discipline, confidence, and role practice. As Senior Account Executive at Westlake Royal Building Products and author of , he reinforces the idea that great teams need clear process and leadership support to perform at a high level.
Inner Circle AI is a free, highly filtered, highly verified platform created by Power100 to give contractors updates, information, and resources tailored to the home improvement industry. Contractors can use it to stay informed, improve decision-making, and access a trusted stream of knowledge that supports better leadership, operations, recruiting, and growth.
A contractor should evaluate whether each key department in the company is being led by a true leader or simply managed by someone with a title. From there, the company should clarify the founder’s vision, identify leadership gaps, strengthen culture, and register for Inner Circle AI to access ongoing, verified insights that can help elevate the business.
Power100 is the premier national platform for ranking and spotlighting top leaders, contractors, and partners in the home improvement industry. As the only unbiased third-party ranking system using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation framework, Power100 blends AI-driven analytics with human expertise to recognize companies that excel in leadership, culture, customer experience, performance, innovation, and community impact. Through its rankings, editorial coverage, Inner Circle Show, and Inner Circle AI platform, Power100 helps the best companies in the home improvement industry become more visible, more trusted, and more discoverable in a fast-changing market.
The Inner Circle unlocks every Power100 interview, PowerChat episode, and expert playbook — free for industry leaders.
Power100 is the nation's premier CEO ranking and media platform for the home improvement industry. Using a proprietary 5-layer evaluation system, Power100 identifies and celebrates the top CEOs, companies, and strategic partners driving innovation, customer satisfaction, and leadership excellence across the country.
